CRM practical exercises ?

[Mach trim]

I am a CRM facilitator looking for some new material

Could anyone recommend a practical or team building exercise for my CRM class ?

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks

[ElFot]

Have you tried incident case studies?

[Mach trim]

Yes, absolutely. In addition to case studies am looking for something like the survival exercise for example.

Or can anyone suggest something they did in a CRM class which was fun or an exercise they found useful ?

Apart from being lectured the standard CRM stuff.

Much appreciated



:ugh:

[fireflybob]

Stranded on the moon exercise.

Also years ago we had an FO who did a presentation on the Britain's worst rail disaster (about 1915 I think in Scotland) and compared it to causes of aviation accidents - departure from SOPs etc. At first we thought what has this to do with CRM but we did learn a lot from it I think.

Hope this helps!

[Pollards]

Which topic(s) are you looking at and for which application, annual refresher, pre command, initial etc? Will it be a joint flight deck and cabin crew session or one or the other, how many will be present, what facilities do you have available, do you have a budget and are there any burning (!) CRM issues that you feel need addressing this year in your company?

[Mach trim]

Thanx,firefly Stranded on the moon is a good exercise, for example

It will be a company conversion class ( mixed with a few initials ) is pilots only,with a mix of new FO's and some experienced Captains


CRM issues like fatigue management and time pressures

I am going to be doing Helios as a case study. Looks like lots of good material to learn from.

Looking for a team building, leadership, group exercises and stress management stuff

[Centaurus]

Looking for a team building, leadership, group exercises and stress management stuff

Oh Jesus wept!.. Please,please - not more of this nonsense. The next thing we will hear is ICAO changing the title of captain to - wait for it....TEAM LEADER.:ugh:

[alf5071h]

... can anyone suggest something they did in a CRM class which was fun or an exercise they found useful ? Try turning this (non team building), no nonsense example by James Reason (http://qhc.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/11/1/40) into a class exercise; error management with good reminders.

[nav144]

Have you tried the Red Ball :\ & White:p Ball game in your team building class? I have found this the best for explaining trust and how teams develop trust when a new member joins a team.

[Hawk]

Nuclear Holocaust is a good one.

[alf5071h]

Hawk, your previous ‘disappearing’ post wanted alternatives or examples for the classroom.
I ignore pure teambuilding exercises which are widely available on-line and are overplayed – see my post on CRM and Centaurus’s comment above. Furthermore, incorrectly applied teambuilding exercises can be damaging to safety concepts e.g. a corporate style teambuilding exercise involved bridge building - a real bridge with prefabricated structures. Whilst positive aspects came from working together, the competitive spirit (internally and with other teams) resulted in corner cutting and risk taking (health and safety); these encouraged bad habits (individually and within the team) and failed to provide a balanced view of productivity vs safety – a key element in aviation.

A more practical exercise based on communication comes from a windshear incident (www.fly-safely.org/story_pf.asp?id=32), which avoids the negativity associated with an accident.

In particular the exercise is based on “The cabin crew carried out a full Emergency Briefing en route. (The tour leader translating into French solved the problem of giving the non-English speaking French tour group the emergency briefing). The PA was used to keep cabin staff and passengers informed during the flight.”

One person should give an emergency landing briefing to ‘the translator’, i.e. bearing in mind that English is not the first language of the tour guide and definitely a non aviation person. This part of the exercise forces the briefer to view the problem from another point of view – the difficulties of what might be lost in translation, what is important, what is the order, the use of diagrams etc. It could be an example of not following an SOP – it is unlikely that such a briefing would be ‘by the book’. Repeat this with both cabin crew and flight crew, bearing in mind that the latter cannot see the recipient of the briefing – no visual feedback (puzzlement etc).

The class activity is to record their understanding of the briefing in a picture – no written words (a hard copy of the mental visualisation of the brief); the class should specifically disregard any of their aviation specialist knowledge. This part of the exercise could identify with the difficulties in receiving information – understanding it – and hence situation awareness. More importantly it could show how individuals (in the class) do not have the same mental model of a situation. In aviation it is important to have a ‘shared mental model’, but this may not necessarily be the same; what is really important is that each individual's mental model is correct for the situation. Check the ‘drawings’ against the cabin evacuation plan – check the cabin safety diagrams are they good enough for this scenario? Another aspect of the class activity shows the difficulty of ignoring previous knowledge – in some situations it could be incorrect or perhaps more likely as in this incident it could impede clear communication (or awareness / decision making).

Overall the incident is a good example of crew / cabin teamwork, but the underlying principles of CRM saved the day. The flight crew followed SOPs – first fly the aircraft. They evaluated the situation, considered options, and communicated. The cabin crew thought about the mechanism of briefing – used all resources (the tour guide), and when required followed SOPs for the evacuation.

Lessons to be learnt? I always review this one “The most significant yet unusual warning of the encounter was the crew's awareness of the exceptional noise of very intense rain” – knowledge (improving my experience) based on someone else’s experience.

[Hawk]

Many thanks for your post Alf.

[Mach trim]

Thanks Alf,

This is what I was looking for.

All the best